Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Happy and Blessed Easter to ALL

Rt. Rev. Dr. Isaac Mar Philoxenos, 

Diocesan Bishop

Diocese of North America and Europe
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen”. (Luke: 24. 5)                                                                         

The church all over the world is celebrating Easter, rejoicing in the 'New life' that the Risen Lord brought to the world through overcoming death. This reminds the faithful ‘to live in the light of the resurrection – that is the meaning of Easter’, the words written in a German Jail cell in 1944 by Dietrich Bonheoffer.  While we celebrate new life, we recognize God’s faithfulness to us.  God’s faithfulness meant that God took the form of a human being to be with us; God was and continues to be Immanuel, ‘God with us’. God in Jesus has to face ‘death’, and it is that faithfulness unto death and bringing new life, that we celebrate.

Human search for the Divine still continues. The question that was asked to the women who went to see Jesus at the tomb, continue to reverberate in us; are we searching the living among the dead? Yes, we recall the women who first found the empty tomb, that gave them the zeal to go and inform the disciples that ‘Christ is risen’. The voice that they heard of the men who stood in dazzling clothes beside the tomb was an added inspiration. Of course, the voice of risen Christ to Mary Magdalene, “woman, why are you weeping”, changes her state of mind. These gave the women the realization of a calling to spread the news of redemption, liberation and of commitment to mission and service. The new energy passed on them gave vitality to overcome the disillusionment and fear in them. Today the world is longing for this new life in the midst of deathful situations. 

PRAYER

Lord God, give us a renewed mind to see the things the way we ought to, a renewed spirit to carry on the mission with the transforming power and the willingness to be a witness of the risen Lord in this world. Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life". John 3:16

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